


the earth is spinning so fast (September)

by paynofile



Series: One Year [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Birthday, Birthday Party, Canon Compliant, Cute, Cutesy, Drinking, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Shenanigans, Drunkenness, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Mini, No Sex, One Shot, Party, Requited Love, Short, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:35:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1798990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paynofile/pseuds/paynofile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is wasted and Louis is slightly less wasted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the earth is spinning so fast (September)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Mad Man Blues" by The Rosewood Thieves  
> Part of the "One Year" series (Check out the rest if you like this one!)  
> Mad fluff.

_Oh Come on, oh darling,_  
 _The earth is spinning so fast._  
 _Sleeping on the floor of your apartment,_  
 _Praying that these dreams don't last._

-The Rosewood Thieves:  _"Mad Man Blues"_

* * *

 

 Niall's birthday fell on a Friday this year, a fact that he'd shouted at Louis at least four times tonight, in various stages of intoxication.

"FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, man! Gonna go CRAZY!" He yelled from across the room. Louis shook his head, but really he found it endearing.

The party was cramped, filled to the very brim with Niall's huge group of friends (and acquaintances, and people he'd met once at a tube stop three years ago...). Niall was just popular. That was just how it was. Niall made friends so easily that Louis was often confused as to how he was supposed to know a guy that was  _literally_ Niall's new roommate. All the boys found it a bit odd, but Niall was like that. He genuinely loved people and didn't see the point in getting to know them slowly. That's why this huge hall was cramped to the point of stifling. It probably would have been even if the birthday boy wasn't an international pop sensation, but that helped, of course.

Louis was, at the moment, leaning against the bar sipping what may have been his fourth, sixth, or fifteenth beer of the night. He'd never been good with keeping track of that sort of thing. In any case, his head was spinning so much that leaning was really his only option at this point. Harry had been pulled into the crowd by Niall somewhere between 10 minutes and 3 hours ago, and Louis had been smiling to himself and ordering more beer and declining offers to dance since then. It wasn't that he was having a bad time, he was just in a watching and sitting mood more than a partying one. And Louis was good at watching. 

Scanning the crowd now, he pinpointed at least three couples that most definitely had their hands down each others' pants, seven girls who were one beer away from passing out, thirteen guys standing awkwardly in the middle of the dancing people, unsure of whether to dance alone or try to find someone else, and Liam and Zayn making out quietly in the corner. That was no surprise, of course. Liam sober was very anti-PDA, but Liam with a couple drinks in him was glassy-eyed and handsy and lunging for Zayn the first chance he got. Louis smiled. Damn, they were hot together.

Of course, eventually watching becomes boring, so Louis finally set down his beer bottle (after polishing it off, of course) and stumbled his way into the crowd, searching for a 50 foot tall monster with gigantic hair. He found Harry by the punch table, watching Josh drum on a plastic chair with two empty beer bottles. A group of people was standing around cheering him on and singing along with the pulsing music in the background and laughing and spilling food on each other. Harry was just staring bug-eyed at the flying beer bottles, clutching a punch glass in both hands, and tapping his toe almost imperceptibly to the beat. Louis knew the moment he saw him that Harry was dead drunk. When he was a normal amount of drunk, Harry was everyone's best friend, dancing and shouting and singing and laughing, but when he got really, properly wasted he became this strange anti-social creep who just stared at everything and didn't talk.

"Harry!" Louis shouted over the thumping bass. The subject in question turned his head quickly, nearly throwing himself off balance, and smiled as he stumbled forward into Louis' arms. What resulted was more of Louis helping Harry not to fall down than any kind of hug. "Are you okay, mate?" Louis could tell he was slurring, but he was at least a far sight better off than Harry.

"Waaaaaarm" Harry said, nuzzling his face into Louis' shoulder.

"Right. Well, I think you should get home."

"I. Like. Youuuuu," Harry slurred, as Louis steered him through the crowd, murmuring  _Sorry_ over and over again. He spotted Niall near the door and pushed Harry toward him.

"Oi! Louis! Harry!" Niall had his guitar out and was standing on a table, riffing for a huge group of people with a beer tucked into the crook of his arm. As he saw the two he jumped down, staggered a bit, and tugged his beer out. "Have a drink, mate! Great craic, hey?"

Louis couldn't help but admire how Niall just truly loved life. He was uncompromisingly, unabashedly happy to see Louis and Harry, even when Harry clearly looked like a stick insect on acid. He pushed the offered beer to the side and shouted "We have to go. Harry's smashed."

Niall found this statement incredibly funny, and began to laugh crazily. He managed to choke out "Yeah, no worries. Thanks for coming!" amidst guffaws. Then he slapped Louis on the back and pushed the two boys into the crowd again. As Louis wove his way through the dancing crowd he heard Niall's scream of "LOVE YOU BOYS!" and turned briefly to give a smile and a thumbs up before picking Harry up practically off the floor and guiding him once again toward the exit. 

Outside, the scent of sweat was replaced by the stench of cigarettes from the row of smokers taking a break from the party. Louis pulled the rag doll that was Harry's body away from the smoking crowd, down the road. It was about 2 am, downtown on a Saturday morning, so taxis were everywhere. It was a matter of seconds before one screeched to a stop in front of them. Louis climbed in first, and then half-helped, half-dragged Harry in with him. Harry immediately began unbuttoning Louis' shirt and then re-buttoning it, giggling to himself and glancing up at Louis every few seconds to see if he found the button game just as hilarious (he didn't, but he did find Harry's face and the alcohol-induced gleam in his eyes to be very, very intriguing). 

After giving the driver some somewhat-helpful directions as to where their flat was, Louis leaned back and stroked Harry's hair and tried to get him to stop with the buttons. 

They'd been driving for ten minutes, about half of the time it took to get home, when Harry sat up suddenly and stared into Louis' eyes with urgency. "Gonna puke" he slurred loudly. "Now."

"Pull over!" Louis called to the driver, who swerved to the curb, where Louis leaned across Harry, opened the door and pushed them both out onto the pavement. Harry lurched forward onto the grass just past the sidewalk, bent over, and threw up the contents of his stomach. Then he collapsed in the grass as if wanting to fall asleep.

"Do you want me to wait?" the taxi driver called. Assessing Harry's state, Louis said no, paid him, and turned back to the over-6-foot-tall man child stretched out a few feet from his own vomit. 

"What am I going to do with you?" Louis thought aloud.

"Kiss me?"

"Not with barf breath. That's for sure."

Harry pouted and reached for Louis with hands that surely smelled of dirt and sweat and alcohol. Louis, sighing, obliged and helped Harry to his feet. Following the puking session, Harry was distinctly more sober than he had been but, given just how drunk he was initially, he was still very, very inebriated. Louis looked past the taller boy's shoulder and found that the grass they were standing on the edge of was part of a children's playground. It was as good a place as any to sit down and sober up a little. After all, the moon was out and the night was warm. Autumn hadn't quite begun to set in yet, so the heat of August still lingered in the air now and then. 

Through giggles and stumbles and shushes they somehow made their way to the summit of the jungle gym mountain. Harry, finding himself on the top platform, decided it was time to lie down. Given his ridiculous height, the amount of his legs that dangled from the edge over the grassy void was comical. For Louis, it brought to mind a clown riding a tiny bicycle. Louis began to run his hands through Harry's hair- a favorite pastime. He pushed the long strands away from the younger boy's face and then smoothed his fingers along the contours of Harry's face. His cheekbones, his chin, his nose, every part of him. Harry hummed, almost like a cat purring, and pushed up into the welcome touch. 

"You're silly," Louis said, with no particular goal other than getting Harry to look at him rather than the sky. 

"Am not." Louis' plan had worked. Harry's eyes were now fixed on Louis', that twinkle that lived in them bright, reflecting the stars of the clear late summer night above them. Louis swept a finger over Harry's eyebrow, along his eyelid, across his temple, savouring the smooth skin beneath him.

"Why do you always end up like this?" Louis asked. "Why don't you just have a beer and call it a day?"

"More fun like this. And..." Harry giggled and pressed his face into Louis' leg, stifling the smile that was spreading across it.

"And what?"

"I like-" Harry glanced up at Louis again. "I like when you take care of me."

The few simple words hit Louis like a baseball bat. He sucked air in quickly and tried not to let himself relish those words, relish the feeling that holding Harry's gentle body in his arms gave him. He tried to deny his mother hen nature, but Louis had never been good at denying himself the pleasures in life, and Harry was no exception. He let the pride that accompanied being the one that Harry wanted by his side, the one Harry wanted  _taking care of him_ wash over him. He let it show through the beaming grin that forced its way across his face.

Harry reached a hand up and cupped Louis' face. "Her eye in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night."  


 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

 

"Romeo and Juliet." Harry said, suddenly serious. "Balcony scene. Romeo, speaking about Juliet."

 

"Alright, mister 'I read Shakespeare for fun', then what does it mean?"

 

"He's saying that if her eyes changed places with the stars that they would..." Harry tried to figure out how to say what he meant through the copious amounts of alcohol still clouding his brain. "They would be so bright in the sky that the birds, uh, wouldn't know it was nighttime because they would think the sun was out. Because the eyes would be so bright. Does that make sense?"

 

"You don't, but I guess it makes sense in a Shakespearean sort of way."

 

"It came to mind, just then, when you smiled."

 

"Oh? Why was that?"

 

Harry covered his face with his hands to hide his enormous grin. "No reason."

 

Looking up at the stars, Louis realized that tonight was one of the most beautiful skies he'd ever seen. The stars stretched out forever and ever. The moon hung big and bright in the top left corner of the sky, and everything was postcard perfect. "It's nights like these when I can begin to understand that the universe is infinite." Louis shifted so he was beside Harry, and let himself lie down, clutched under Harry's arm. It felt right to be here on the most beautiful night of the year with the most beautiful boy in all that infinite universe.

 

"Don't let it make you feel small, okay? Let it make you feel big, like you get to be a part of infinity."

 

"Easy for you to say. Those of us under six feet might find it a bit hard to feel big."

 

Harry laughed softly and pulled Louis a little closer. Louis knew already that this was where they'd stay all night, under the stars in their fancy suits slightly stained with puke and spilled beer. And there was something right about falling asleep on a jungle gym with a boy who liked being taken care of by you and who let the sky make him feel big and quoted Romeo and Juliet while drunk. There was something about being in love even as things were ending and beginning all around, like Niall's birthday (which seemed forever ago now) and summer and the night  and the morning and the universe and the taxi who'd dropped them off and Harry's breathing coming long and slow as Louis curled his fingers tight around his love's arm and closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at teeneage.tumblr.com  
> Thanks for reading!


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